SteelSeries Arctis 7 Review

Good / The microphone works very well with good noise canceling and quality. The sound is decent for the price, but the headset really stands out in terms of comfort and design. Numerous buttons and features make it very capable and easy to use for online gaming and communication.

Bad / Some 3D sound effects are a hit or miss. Sound quality for some games didn’t impress me too much.

Verdict / The SteelSeries Arctis 7 is one of the best wireless headsets on the market for the price. It’s durable, made well, and sounds great.

Intro

The SteelSeries Arctis 7 has a lot to live up to. Steelseries uses a lot of buzzwords to make it stand out from other gaming headsets.

The headphone part of the headset uses advanced S1 Speaker drivers which Steelseries claims to use in their $300 flagship headsets. The microphone is “ClearCast” which has bidirectional input with great noise cancellation, and the band on top of the headset is like a band used in ski or snowboard goggles.

To finish things off, the headset cups themselves are made with something called “AirWeave” which is suppose to be inspired from athletic wear to remain breathable and cool even during long gaming sessions. This headset certainly sounds great from this description, but does it perform and hold up to these lofty claims? Keep reading to find out in this SteelSeries Arctis 7 review.

Pricing

The SteelSeries Arctis 7 retails for around $150 on Amazon and on SteelSeries’ main website. This is a decent asking price for a gaming headset, but considering that the lowest priced wireless gaming headsets go for around $100, then $150 isn’t too bad.

When comparing the SteelSeries Arctis 7 to $100 varieties like the Corsair Void, or the Logitech G930, the SteelSeries Arctis 7 has more features. But is it more comfortable?

Comfort

The good news is that yes, the SteelSeries Arctis 7 is very comfortable. The headset actually has a very unique and innovative design, which is one reason I think it’s garnered a lot of attention. I think it’s actually the most comfortable pair of headphones / gaming headset that I’ve worn. It’s the first headset I can forget about.

The headset has a metal band with a fabric ski-cloth type band on top and underneath that balances the headset comfortably on your head. This design gives the headset a cozy and secure feeling that I haven’t traditionally found with wireless headsets. With my Corsair Void, it feels like it’s a bit loose and insecure, but the SteelSeries Arctis 7 always feels snug.

At first when I was testing out the SteelSeries Arctis 7, I felt that the ear cups were a little too close to my ears. But over time, I got use to it and found them comfortable as well. They don’t squeeze your head too tightly, but they are tight enough to block out some noise. I found that wearing the headset with glasses is doable and actually comfortable for long gaming sessions.

SteelSeries really pushes that the material of the earcups is something special, and while comfortable, I did find that my ears still tended to run a bit hot. Perhaps less hot, however, than some other headsets I’ve tested–so keep that in mind.

Features

So what about the features? Does the SteelSeries Arctis 7 perform?

Overall, in terms of audio performance, I found that the SteelSeries Arctis 7 sounds good. It doesn’t sound like a $300 headset, like they claim, but it sounds like a $150 gaming headset.

It sounds comparable to most other headsets in the range, and it’s pleasant to listen to music since that sounds clean and crisp with good bass. But I didn’t find that gaming with the headset on in a game like PUBG was particularly immersive or game changing, but testing it out in a game with more complex sound elements did give me more of a sense of space and echoes and the like if that’s what you want.

The DTS Headphone X feature feels like a bit of a miss in my opinion, since it does give more of a 3D experience, but it seems like audio quality for music, videos, or other options is hampered by the weird sense of echo and distance.Most of the app isn’t that useful, but I did like how easy it is to use. With the SteelSeries Arctis 7 there isn’t any RGB features to play with, or many other options (with the Corsair app you can do cool things like have the headset announce when it’s on in a voice, or if something is muted), but the app is very useful, easy to setup, and I like it just for testing audio and making sure that your mic is working.

The microphone on the SteelSeries Arctis 7 is quite good. I found it much better than headsets in the $100 range since this has better noise-cancellation and better pickup. You’re not going to get a lot of pops, and while it can’t compare to the dynamic range and deepness of a studio mic in the $100 range like the Blue Yeti, it’s perfectly capable for gaming with wireless capability.

Lastly, I do want to mention the clean design and premium feel that the SteelSeries Arctis 7 has. The earcups look great in the white variety I picked up, and the smooth plastic as well as the headband really make it feel an extra step up from lower priced headsets. Buttons are also textured and clicky, and very easy to use on the back which makes managing game audio and managing the relationship between game and communications super easy with the ChatMix dial on the right side of the headset.

The microphone is also easy to hide, and easy to pull out and adjust. It works on a sort of cord system that feels intuitive. One feature that I really like is that when you mute the headset, the little microphone turns red to let you know. However, I do wish that the mute button was a tad bit more clicky since it feels a bit squishy and easy to miss in your fingers at first.

The power button is also a bit small, but it’s nice that the headphone beeps and the button turns green to let you know the headset is on.

Conclusion

The SteelSeries Arctis 7 is a bit on the pricey side, but the headset makes up for it in terms of features, microphone performance, and build quality. It’s super comfortable as well, even with glasses, which makes it a clear winner in my book for $150.

Tom Spark is a chair researcher, VPN expert, and a geek product extraordinaire. When he’s not spell checking his articles with Grammarly, he’s playing video games, watching too much Netflix, and deciding if he likes his current chair or not.